A Girl, Fey, Immortal, Hurt
by CynicalInkSlinger
Summary: This is a kinda angsty fic okay, really angsty about how Bella gets turned after Edward leaves. Pretty original, if I do say so myself, despite the overused idea. Fluff cannot be stopped forever, though! B/E
1. n o t h i n g

A/N: A story I came up with after reading tons of angsty stuff

**A/N: A story I came up with after reading tons of angsty stuff. I was kinda worried I made Bella a bit OOC, but I didn't really want to change the whole thing, and she IS kind of messed up after Edward leaves, so I stuck with it. Hope you enjoy.**

**Disclaimer: To the great Stephanie Meyer the thanks must go,**

** For the characters, setting, oh well, you know.**

**Oh, and the song in this chapter is actually by Norah Jones.**

A Girl, Fey, Immortal, Hurt

Chapter 1: n o t h i n g

It hurt. I stared at my cut finger, trying to care. I dredged up a reason: If Charlie saw me staring like this, he'd be upset.

So, I washed the paring knife in the sink and ate a piece of the half cut apple without feeling hungry. I was getting better at this. Just five week after . . .

I whimpered and sank to my knees, fighting memory. Frozen gold eyes that I helplessly loved even as they rejected me. I convulsed and hunched over in agony. Dimly, through my pain, I heard the front door open and Charlie walk in.

I sat up, gasping, then pulled myself to my feet, trying to pull myself back together. Charlie had already seen, though.

"It's nothing," I lied, not looking at him, "Nothing, nothing, nothing." It felt good to keep saying it, like it would protect me from thinking anything else. _Nothing nothing nothing nothing nothing nothing._

"I think I'll go for a walk," I told Charlie before walking out the door.

I mindlessly walked through the woods, trying to empty mind of anything but _nothing_.

_Fire. Intense, burning through my entire body. Killing, slowly but surely. It made me feel better though, knowing I had been through worse pain. No, this pain was better, even if it made me shriek in horror at the magma consuming me._

I woke up to a blue sky and a singing bird. They were so inconsistent with what I was feeling that I almost felt perplexed. Almost. I was too busy feeling dead.

I sat up on the forest floor and looked at the bird. I softened towards it somehow. I remembered the story about the nightingale that killed itself for a fickle love (**AN: A really sad short story**) and suddenly filled with sorrow for myself and the bird. Words seemed to tumble out of me, expressing how I felt.

_Nightingale_

_Sing us a song_

_Of a love that once belonged_

_Nightingale_

_Tell me your tale_

_Was your journey far too long?_

_Does it seem like I'm looking for an answer_

_To a question I can't ask_

_I don't know which way the feather falls_

_Or if I should blow it to the left_

_All the voices that are spinnin' around me_

_Trying to tell me what to say_

_So can I fly right behind you_

_And you can take me away_

I paused as, after singing, all feelings rushed back. Including the pain.

What had happened? All I now remembered now was fire . . . . . . . as bad as the time when James had bit me. Oh!

I examined my hand closely. It did look paler, harder maybe. I didn't know. Lightly pushing on a tree, I tested myself. The tree groaned, then toppled.

A slightly- well, mostly completely- hysterical laugh escaped my lips. How ironic. I had gotten what I wanted . . . . . . and now had to suffer eternally.

Trying to calm myself, I started chanting _nothing_ in my head again. I would never see Charlie again. _Nothing. _Or Renee. _Nothing._ Nor friends or any other society. _Nothing. Nothing nothing nothing._

A small rhyme popped into my head:

_Refrain to space_

_Refrain to silence_

_Refrain from thought; _

_Refrain from pain_

_Refrain to nothing_

_Refrain to naught._

I thought this was probably my power. Good enough for my purposes at least, since it blanked my mind.

I started to feel a burning in the back of my throat. _Thirsty, _my mind coolly noted. Looked like I was going to try my hand- or teeth- at hunting.

--

Two deer and a hare later, I was flashing deeper into the forest. No reason to stick around, or even stay still ever again.

Stopping at a forest pool on the way, I gazed at my reflection. Wild and pain-filled eyes looked back at me from under tangled, leafy hair.

I laughed shrilly as a spasm of pain struck me down. Those eyes were red, mostly- but the topaz in them could only be _his._ I welcomed insanity.

On whim, I ran my teeth across my arm, trying to distract myself. A puckered welt opened, stinging. I laughed again, tears streaming down my face, then let the pain have me.


	2. STEPPINGINTOPAIN

Hey, guys

**Hey, guys! Second installment here. Kinda funny for the AN to be all happy with such an angsty fic, but… there you go! I'm happy to get a second chappie up!**

**Disclaimer: Roses are red, violets are blue, I don't own, so please don't sue.**

**--**

Chapter 2: STEPPINGINTOPAIN : B PoV

As I was running deeper into the forest, I spotted something. Two seconds later, I came to a halt in front of a cliff face. I had seen a cave, hidden from view at all but one angle, unreachable- for humans.

_Why not?_ I thought miserably. Digging my fingers into the rock, I swiftly ascended the cliff, and stepped into the cave.

It was empty, with a dry dirt floor and a couple boulders scattered here and there. Good enough.

I piled all the boulders in one corner, smoothing the dirt where they had lain. Done. Here was home.

I decided to go hunting, obviously having nothing better to do.

A bear and a buck later, I chanced upon a path. Hearing voices coming, I quickly hid in nearby brush. Ordinary humans, it looked like, chatting about the _weather_ of all things. Ha.

Even my mental amusement sounded flat.

Suddenly I realized- I should have been thirsting for their blood! I sniffed the air cautiously. They didn't smell any better than animals. Huh. I knew that couldn't be right.

I walked back to my cave, thinking it over. I supposed that because I had detested the smell of human blood before, it must have lessened its appeal as a vampire. Morbidly, I wondered if it would taste any better.

Well, this new talent would be useful- if I ever decided to enter human society again. What was the point?

I added another rip to the scars on my arms and settled down at the front of the cave, staring unblinkingly at the sun, waiting for it to go down and for the night to cover me.

--

Sitting up, gasping, I whimpered from a particularly bad episode of agony. I had remembered Ed- _his_ eyes when he had told me he didn't want me. Mine were almost exactly like them now. I made three rips, but I needed a more engaging distraction.

I made a quick 8-mile trip to the nearest human town, a smallish city named Samson.

It was night, and as I walked the dark streets I chanced upon a piano store. Though flinching away from the black piano in the corner, I entered and looked around, finally settling at a white baby grand.

Music flowed out of me, and I just played and played. It felt like it did when I wrote poetry.

Coming to the end of a phrase, I realized I could do this forever. I glanced at the price tag. 4950. Well, I had more than that in my college fund.

Now that I thought about it, it'd be good to free those funds up, for clothing and the piano, if nothing else.

I stalked out of the store, considering. In the end, I decided to just steal my money from the bank. They had probably already liquidated my account with my disappearance, so it should be mine anyway.

I got the money without a fuss (easier than it should be, really) and perched in a tree to wait till morning, since it really was late now, and everything had closed.

--

The next morning, when I deemed it a reasonable time, I headed straight for the piano store with my money neatly folded in my pockets. I ran my fingers over the keys of the white piano's keys, then glanced around for other options. No, the white one would be mine.

I walked up to the counter and rang the bell for service. As I waited, on a whim, I snagged to sharpies, a black and a red, from the numerous writing utensils for sale on the counter.

It was taking a while, though with my unnatural hearing I could hear shuffling from the back. I rang the bell again, to see a flustered man hurry out. Probably late twenties. Smelled like the equivalent of dry biscuits, didn't look much better.

"Yes, yes, what can I do for you?" He said breathlessly.

"I'd like these two pens, and that white piano over there," I replied monotonously.

"Uh," he said skeptically and somewhat sarcastically, "That would come to four thousand nine hundred and fifty one dollars and twenty five cents."

I silently put my previously counted stack of money on the counter and added five quarters for the pens. I had time to count out the amount the night before. Well, I had eight hours.

The man stared, apparently speechless, at the pile. He gulped, looked at my face, looked back down, and started counting it himself. I guess the blankness that usually inhabited my eyes had scared him off.

I waited patiently as he silently counted the money, gave me the receipt, put the pens in a little plastic bag that had 'Pete's Pianos' on it and took a deep breath.

"Where do you want us to deliver the piano?" He asked, determined to keep it professional I suppose.

I considered the question. "I'll have someone pick it up very shortly."

His eyes widened. "Uh, I guess that'd be… okay… don't forget to bring the receipt."

I nodded and left.

I stopped by a department store to get clothes, buying underwear, multiple jeans, plain loose t-shirts in dark colors, and 4 black baggy sweatshirts. I didn't really care what I looked like, so I didn't need to be picky.

I also got pens, pencils, music paper, envelopes, and a large plastic box to keep everything in. As an afterthought, I got a small book with codes and the Celtic alphabet. If someone chanced upon any of my writing, I didn't want him or her to be able to read it.

I piled everything but an envelope, a piece of paper, and a pen in the box and whisked it back to my cave, placing it in a corner. When I got back to Samson, the sun was going down. I was glad to not have to hide in a shadow whenever the sun came out from behind a cloud.

Taking the paper, envelope, and pen out of my pocket, as well as my receipt, I wrote 'Thank You' on the paper, folded it into thirds with receipt inside of it, and stuffed it inside the envelope. I also wrote 'From the Customer' on the envelope, so they couldn't possibly misunderstand.

Finally, it was late enough to go unnoticed. I jogged at a human speed to the piano store, and gently forced the doors open. I picked my piano up and left the envelope in its place.

I then ran it back to the cave, harder than it sounds. Sure, it was easy to lift, but very cumbersome.

When I got to the cave, I placed the piano by the left wall, back against it. I then got out my sharpies. I had not known why I bought them for, but I did now. The pure white piano did not yet fit me.

First, I scribbled the red all over it in quick, jagged strokes for pain and loss and the blood I now lived on. Then I scribbled the black all over in more spiraling squiggles, for numbness, for music notes and writing, and for the rest of my unlife. I stood back to view my work. Yes.

I sat down at the piano. I swept through some melodies, before I noticed that it kept coming back to my nightingale song. So, I wrote in down, taking the time to record it on my music paper, along with the lyrics in Celtic runes.

And the sun, as it rose, heard me playing.

Mostly I played pain, anger, numbness, hysteria, insanity, aching, helplessness… and love.

I played till the sun went down again, and the notes started to sound like my melody. The cavity in my chest hurt, and I stopped. However, for some reason, I felt the needed to puzzle it out, find out the whole piece, resolve the whole meaning.

So, I figured it out. It only took me a few days, in the end, though I was relying on my memory, always painful. My face would crumple, my chest would burn, but I would merely slice my arm and play on.

When the day came that I knew that song inside and out and could continue it myself, I relaxed into my normal pain. I knew the days would now cease to differ.

In the sunlight, if I was thirsty, I would hunt and dive into a stream as cold as I to clean up. The rest of all days would be spent playing wildly, diving into seas of melodies and touching them all.

When night fell, I played the lullaby, pouring my feelings into that too, creating endless variations. I wrote down the original so it wouldn't be forgotten.

Thus was my life, perfectly formulated to keep me from as much pain as possible.

I was in agony.


	3. SIREN'S CALLNumbness Drenched with Pain

Hi guys

**Hi guys! This time I have a reason to be happy- this chapter is where it gets better! Also, I've gotten my first reviews ever! Rock on, my friends.**

**Disclaimer: It all belongs to Stephanie Meyer**

** I don't Bella, nor can buy her**

** Of course, Edward would be more fun to hire.**

**Claimer: Poetry in this story is MINE! If anyone wants to use it, they must ask me first so I can get totally psyched. (Like that would happen.)**

**--**

**Chapter Three: SIREN'S CALL/ To cure or mend**

**--E PoV--**

I walked mindlessly through the forest. Tearing myself from the search for Victoria, I had come here to hunt.

It was all my fault, I knew. Victoria. My heart being ripped from my chest. I wished I could curl up and finish killing myself in tortured peace, so I couldn't hurt anyone, especially Bella, again.

Bella. The only reason for my continued existence. I _had _to kill Victoria so she could live a normal, human life and forget about me.

At the thought of this, I felt both my chest trying to rip apart, and a small voice of contentment. I _would_ live in eternal torment for Bella.

A deer made the mistake of coming near to my silent, painful form. I pounced and fed, and did the same for another, and another.

As I continued through the forest, unsure of where I was going, I passed by a pool and glimpsed myself. I looked… the same. No different. I jumped in, trying to obliterate the image.

It didn't seem fair that my outer form hadn't changed while my inner self had deteriorated so quickly.

The water was cold, even colder than I, and I breathed it, trying to quench the burning pain so like my change.

I lay on the bottom, eventually becoming completely silent, till bittersweet dusk crept o'er, along with notes, barely audible and soft as down even to my incredible hearing.

I leapt out of the water, striding away from its gurgle and freezing to see if that hearing had been correct. The lullaby. Bella's Lullaby.

Worse than any attack, the soft music tore that hole where a heart used to be even wider, and I cried out and fell to my knees, feeling it gaping.

But the lullaby was better than I wrote it. It was more wild, beautiful, and painful than I had ever heard, much less written. It danced through minor variations and left mourning in its wake.

I had to find the source, the player. It was just… compulsory. I had to comfort, find out who was playing. I had the feeling it would elude me, that faeries or angels were playing and it was impossible for me to disturb them, but I had to try.

The music seemed to come from a mountain. In a second I was at its base. The music was louder, and still recklessly heartbreaking.

I started climbing, as fast as I could, like a Greek sailor to a siren's call, and stopped on a ledge. The music was very close now, even for a human, and if I could I would cry at its fragile loveliness.

Indeed, it seemed to be on just the other side of this outcropping… I looked around and saw the cave. From deep in the cave, the music was playing.

I suddenly felt a great reluctance to interrupt. I knew I would anyways.

I took a deep breath, bracing myself, then flashed to the front of the cave.

--**(I almost ended the chapter here, but that would be both evil and waaaaay to short. :P)**--

Sitting in front of a red-and-black-scribbled white piano, just for a second was- _Bella._ She looked lovely, pale, and wilder than ever before. And she had molten-gold eyes. Worse than I had been afraid of… Bella was a vampire.

I gasped and froze, frozen by pain, guilt, love, sorrow, longing, self-loathing, worry, pleading, and conflicting urges, numb.

In a split second, Bella was four yards in front of me, frozen as well… or as badly.

All I could do was gaze at her, hair silken but in a discordant mess, limbs fragile looking and hard as diamonds at her sides, posture vulnerable and as pain-filled as her music. Her eyes… a whirlpool of endless agony, hopeless love, fey expression, and eternal, repetitive hurting.

I felt a chasm split me, but I was still frozen.

Bella seemed to be in a like state and gazed at me as well. I felt pierced by it and welcomed it.

I don't know how long we stood there. Sometime, though, on some day, at some sunny hour, Bella sank onto the ground, legs crossed beneath her. I was bound more tightly, and couldn't move as time froze again. I watched her eyes slowly fill to the brim with everything- pain, wanting, denial, love. Agony twisted inside me as the emotions built and grew. Finally, full and bursting, her mouth opened.

Her voice was unused, but its satin-smooth beauty still stunned me- or would have, had my attention not been utterly given to her words. She was reciting a poem.

I felt every cell in my body strain to listen, and I knew that even if I could have moved formerly, I would have been mesmerized now.

_Filled with woe, nay, say not woe_

_But numbness drenched in pain_

_A girl, fey, immortal, hurt,_

_Plays all through the rain._

_And what she cannot play she tears it_

_Into her hard skin_

_Knowing that she'll never be_

_Herself nor sane again._

_And, in this knowledge, playing out,_

_To none but trees and stars,_

_Of how her heart was ripped away,_

_Greater than imitation scars,_

_Finds beloved thief at hand_

_Finally losing mind_

_For he would not stray near to her_

_Of any of his kind._

_So wracked with binding love and pain_

_She longs to rip and tear_

_Not knowing if more agony_

_She can in this life bear._

_For what could pierce more deeply_

_Than his glowing skin and hair?_

_Though it e'er holds my heart_

_His own shall ne'er care._

Her words softly tore my spirit to shreds as they made clear to me the depth of her misunderstanding and hurt.

Released from her spell, I exhaled sharply and found myself holding her in my arms, rocking and silently, dryly sobbing as I told her how sorry I was, how much I had lied.

I held her face against mine, inhaling in relief and to smell her again, drinking in the feel of her in my arms again, trying to comfort her pain. I could only hope that she would forgive me, as undeserving as I was.

She reached up and touched my cheek with just her fingertips. I waited tensely for her to say something.

"You're not real," She whispered, and my heart, newly restored, broke.

**(Whoops! A cliffie after all! ;) Maybe some reviews would help.)**


	4. To Cure or Mend

Well, I've been typing up a storm lately, (luckily for you,) but I'm not sure how quickly this one will get out- school's tomor

**Well, I've been typing up a storm lately, (luckily for you,) but I'm not sure how quickly this one will get out- school's tomorrow. dies Anyway, this chappie's probably the one in which all of you will sigh with relief. But there's a change in PoV, so you'll have wait a bit for the cliffie resolve.**

**And a big Thank you to my favorite reviewer, ginnyinvisible. :D Also thanks to Lorianne. All you guys rock. ******

**Disclaimer: It's Stephanie Meyer's- what else can I rhyme?**

** Maybe I'll think of something better next time.**

**Claimer: There's basically no poetry in this one, just a few silly rhymes, but if you feel inclined to take them, let me know, kedok?**

**--**

**Chapter 4: To Cure or Mend **

**B PoV**

It was night. I was playing the lullaby. Everything was either silence or weeping music.

And then- an unnatural wind. On instinct, almost instantly, I flashed to a few yards from the cave entrance, only to face- _Edward._

I froze, and could not even think for a few minutes.

_What… What is _he _doing here?_ I searched my mind. _He must not be. _ I numbly concluded. I had finally driven myself to a hallucination.

But- the wind? And his features- they were more beautiful than I remembered. I traced them with my eyes, ignoring the ache I felt. It was worth it.

But I did not allow myself to hope. Something inside me told me that if I allowed myself to believe this was real, it would hurt even more when it ended.

I felt a burden on my chest, like my newfound heart was turned to lead. I sank under its weight, the anticipation of loss, folded to the ground.

I felt all the days of pain, hurt, love unrequited, current longing… everything, build up inside me, clamoring, wailing at me, prompting me in different directions. My emotions had turned on me.

I felt myself slip into my poetry mindset. It was the only thing I could do. I let go of my body, and chanted out my feelings.

When I came back to myself, my gaze was still on Edward. His face crumbled and I wanted to cry with him.

Suddenly I was in his arms, the one place I would ever want to be. But he was shaking, begging me to forgive him for lying.

No matter how much I wanted to comfort him, forgive him, heal… this wasn't real. He wasn't real.

I gently, barely touched the face I wanted to rememorize and whispered the words I desperately wished weren't true. "You're not real."

Edward's eyes shut in pain that hurt me more than my own, then opened filled with determination. "Bella. Please. I am real, more real than I've been for… well, it seems like forever." His eyes stared deeply into mine, trying to persuade me.

I couldn't look away. I closed my eyes instead. "I… I'm afraid to hope. Then it will hurt more when you leave," I murmured to him, trying to make him see it from my angle.

I opened my eyes to see his reaction. He was hurt, but not deterred.

"Bella, I could never leave you again. Ever. It'd be easier to rip myself apart. I'm… unbelievably sorry for lying, so horribly. I've always loved you, with everything I am, and I always will," he told me, tone intense.

I froze in his arms.

"Bella," he continued, "How could you believe me? After I've told you so many times how much I love you, how much you're a part of me?"

I started sobbing. It just couldn't be. Edward would never say these things to me. I must have lost my sanity.

"You can't be real. I knew I was hallucinating," I choked out amidst my sobs.

He looked truly miserable. "I'm so sorry Bella. It was a horrible, terrible lie. Please believe me."

I reached up, unable to resist, and placed my palm against his smooth cheek. "It never made sense for you to love me." I looked down to avoid his pleading eyes.

"Bella…" He tilted my head back up. "I love you more than anyone could ever comprehend," He whispered, and before I could react, his lips were on mine.

The kiss was better than any we had ever shared before, made no less intense by its painful edge. It repaired my heart, and set it back in its place. It almost felt like it could beat again.

My body stopped listening to me, and I clutched myself closer, fingers tracing his face. Lingeringly, we pulled apart.

"Please believe me." He whispered again, his hand cupping my face.

All my doubts, risks, hopes, pains, and love came together in that moment, agreeing on something for the first time I could really remember.

"I believe you," I finally said, and before I could start sobbing again in joy, I pulled Edward's face back to mine and started kissing him with a desperation of my own. He kissed me back just as hard, eventually moving his lips to my neck.

I had time to gasp. I was in his lap, hands tangled in his hair, and I pulled away to rest my head against his shoulder. I felt him press his face against my hair and start stroking his hand up and down my back.

"I love you unconstrainedly, unconditionally, indescribably, unendingly." He murmured into my hair.

I chuckled weakly. "Ditto plus infinity."

As he started stroking my arm, I heard his breath catch. I sat up and he slowly brought it forward, revealing my scars.

"_And what she cannot play she tears it / into her hard skin,_" He whispered, voice strangled, and I looked away, trying to tug my arm out of his grasp.

He didn't let me, touching every scar gently with his lips, gathering both my wrists into his hands, seeming to have no more words.

"Please never hurt yourself again," He said finally, voice still choked, cheek pressed against my forearm.

I leaned down and rested my cheek against his. "I'm sorry."

Suddenly he sat up, eyes blazing with a passion. "Don't apologize. Please… _I_ could grovel at your feet for the rest of my existence and still owe you much more." His tone was quieter as he concluded, "_I'm _sorry." He kissed one arm. "I'm sorry." He kissed the other. "I'm sorry." He whispered once more and pressed his lips to mine.

It was simple, and seemed to heal the last of the lingering hurt within us.

**Don't worry, this isn't the end. Actually, this chapter went on a lot longer when I first wrote it- but typing it again takes forever and I figured I'd just post it now. :D**

**Review!**


	5. Playing and Plans

**Erm... hi, guys. Much and many apologies for the time lapse, it seems I've been a bit busy. ******** I hope you can forgive me as you read the next chapter. ******** It is a bit cheesey, though . . . okay, very cheesey.**

**Disclaimer: It's Stephanie Meyers', not mine- I'd better keep typing, now that I finally have time.**

**Claimer: It's almost ridiculous to put this in for the two lines of silly rhyme in here, but hey. Same stuff applies.**

**----**

**Chapter 5: Playing and Plans**

**BPoV**

"_I'm sorry," he whispered, and pressed his lips to mine again. It seemed to heal the last of the hurt inside us._

I pulled back slightly and cupped his face in my hands. "I forgive you," I murmured, trying to put all the love I could into my gaze.

He kissed me swiftly before standing up with me in his arms, seeming to be filled with an energized, wild joy. He gave the loudest, happiest yell I've ever heard, sending a wordless exclamation of happiness over the forest.

"Edward!" I laughed, for the first time in what seemed like centuries.

He looked at me like I was crazy. "I just found and was forgiven by my one and only love! I can't stay quiet!" To prove his point, he yelled again.

"Well, when you put it that way . . ." I whooped too, twice as loud. Edward just looked at me, surprised. I sent his crazy look, right back at him. "What? I was just found by my own love, and had his previously mispronounced love for me confirmed! I can't let him outclass me!"

"He'd never e able to- the poor fool's hopes would be dashed by your silken voice, clever wit, sweet personality, gleaming hair, dazzling teeth, charming eyes, warm heart, giving soul, beauty . . ."

"Oh, I don't know" I countered Edward's argument and tried to hide my embarrassment, "I'm sure he has al those qualities and more. Oh, except for the wit part."

Edward's eyebrows rose and he playfully growled, "Oh, you did not just say that."

I backed away, feigning nervousness, "Now Edward, let's be reasonable-" before I ran for it, calling "Hide and Seek!" over my shoulder. It twinged to be apart from him, but knowing it was I who had run off made it easier.

I ran my fastest, murmuring a rhyme on a whim. "Trees and air please hide my scent- no harm done if none is meant."

I quickly rushed to the stream and jumped over it, hiding behind a boulder an acceptable distance downwind. After a couple minutes longer than I expected, I heard Edward's voice. It sounded kind of . . . panicked.

I closed my eyes for a millisecond and considered my options. I could risk losing a game if he was faking, or I could risk worrying him more if he wasn't. I opted for the first option, quickly flashing behind Edward and tapping him on the shoulder and tilting my head quizzically.

"Bella!" he gasped, "I couldn't find you!"

"Uh, yeah, I noticed," I affirmed.

"I mean, I couldn't smell you, the trail just . . . ended." he pulled me into a long embrace, touching my neck with his lips before leaning back again. "I still can't." He looked extremely concerned.

Worried a bit myself, I asked "Where?" He quickly whisked me there.

I gasped. It was the exact spot where I had finished my silly rhyme.

"What?" Inquired a still tense Edward, looking around.

"Let me try something," I replied distantly as I tried to tap into my power again. Finally, I announced a new couplet. "Air my scent please now reveal / Tress the same, uncover, unseal."

As I chanted, Edward watched, puzzled but patient. "Can you smell me now?" I asked. (**T-Hee.)**

He inhaled and smiled in relief. "My favorite fragrance in the world has, indeed, returned to the blessed air," he announced, rather pompously, before his mood turned more thoughtful. "Is this your power? You can command everything with your poetry?"

"I – " don't know," I replied, uncertain, "I wasn't really in a state where I could experiment."

He winced but then suggested, "Why don't you try commanding something then?" I gazed at him doubtfully. "Come on," He encouraged.

I sighed and searched my mind for something to command. Coming up with the perfect idea, I grinned mischievously at Edward and started chanting.

"Edward, for a minute of time, I ask that you speak only in rhyme. Though this might be challenging, I trust that you will learn something."

Edward looked dubious. "Why, Bella, must you have picked that? It's like you pulled it out of a hat." Here he looked even more agitated, "Hey, and look, it actually worked! This is making me unimaginably irked."

By this time I was doubled over with laughter, but I could tell he was getting frustrated so I calmed down and said "Edward, you are released from your injunction, having completed the orders' function."

He sighed in relief. "Bella!" He turned to me, consternated.

"What?" I raised my hands in innocence, "At least now we know it works."

"Hmph" was his only reply and he turned around, heading back to the mountain.

I lightly jumped onto his back and wrapped my arms and legs around him, craving his touch. "Aww, come on, Edward. I love you." I spoke into his ear and felt his muscles melt under me.

He pulled me in front of him and smiled reluctantly. "You can charm me even without your power."

"Oh, but I still don't think I could persuade you speak in rhyme without it," I grinned impishly.

"Unfair, but also untrue," he countered and stepped closer, so that his mouth was at my ear, "_Alack, there lies more peril in thine eye than twenty of their swords. Look thou but sweet and I am proof against their enmity._" He laughed suddenly and scooped me into his arms.

"You are the most dangerous creature I've ever met," He whispered into the crook of my neck.

I arched my spine. "Who's playing unfairly now?"

"No one," his breath made me shiver, "I've merely evened the playing field."

"Have not," I accused breathlessly, "You are definitely cheating." I sniffed for effect.

"Would you rather I stopped?" He mock-mourned, giving me a heart-melting look and making me relent into another lingering kiss before I hopped down and we walked back to my cave together.

After a short period of pleasant silence while we stood together at the entrance, his face took on a thoughtful guilty look. "What is it?" I softly inquired.

He 'hmmed' noncommittally and pulled me into a hug, resting his chin on my head. "I was just thinking . . . about my family."

"Can we go see them?" I asked, looking up at him, "Please?"

"Yes," he said hesitantly, "It's just . . . I haven't been very . . . civil to them lately."

"What?" I asked, confused.

He sighed. "Well, when I . . . left . . ." he winced, "For one thing, they hated it. They already considered you a sister, or a daughter, respectively, and were . . . displeased at leaving you." Here he took an unneeded breath, "Secondly . . . I more or less curled into my own little world of pain afterwards. Didn't speak, rarely hunted. Nothing seemed worthwhile. I barely even said goodbye when I left to find Victoria."

"You were out here looking for _Victoria?!_" I clarified, panic filling my eyes, "That is – out of the question!"

"But-" he tried to object.

"No! Absolutely not! You are not putting yourself in any sort of danger whatsoever," I ordered, partially angry, mostly afraid.

"Okay, okay," he tried to sooth me, "I would never leave you to look for her anyway."

I subsided, switching back to the original subject with only a final commanding look at Edward. "In any case, I'm sure your family will forgive you. I mean, you didn't mean to hurt anyone, and with Jasper, they'll have known what you were going through. Did you ever read any of their minds?"

"I couldn't bear to find out what they thought of me," he said in a low tone, looking down.

"My poor, masochistic nitwit," I sighed, cupping his chin to bring him up and kiss him gently, "I'm sure they were hurt, but they're your _family._ They love you."

He nodded glumly, kissing me again before looking around. "What do you want to bring?"


End file.
